On Yards. And Fixing Them Up.

We've been steadily working on our yard for the past year we've lived in this house, but in the past few weeks we've really kicked it up a notch. We're preparing for a joint first and third birthday extravaganza at the beginning of August, and I made a list a mile long of things that need to get accomplished before the big day. I'd say 85% of the list is outdoors stuff. I am completely broken. My body is protesting so loudly, but we must carry on!!

Honestly though, perhaps the most frustrating part of all of this is my lack of before pictures. CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE I DIDN'T TAKE BEFORE PICTURES??? I can't, as evidenced by all the all-caps. I have ONE crooked shot, taken from the distance of most of the back yard from the day we moved in. I was mad about the condition in which the house was left and was huffily taking pictures of piles of garbage and forgetting that I needed to take pictures of all spaces we were hoping to transform. Oops. THEN, whenever I actually get a spare minute without any babies attached to me and I want to head out and do something in the yard, I just run and frantically get started so I can accomplish something before one needs me and, d'oh, of course I never stop to take before pictures. GAH! 

I really am that type of person though. I decide it's time for a project, and BAM, I'm ripping things out, throwing things away, hauling things, shouting "JUST DO IT, for cripes' sakes!" I hate taping and prepping and thinking and considering all options. I just want results and I want them now, and I also know my minutes are usually numbered and I need to take advantage. It's frustrating though, because I've probably filled over fifty yard waste bags with poisonous plants and weeds, I've hauled hundreds and hundreds of rocks from piles all over the yard to make borders and beds, I've even hauled over fifty rocks that were bigger than my head across the yard to make a giant rock border around a bed of trees. I have definitely gone over a thousand man hours in this yard, and I want people to step back there and gasp at how beautiful it is, but it's not that yard yet, even with all the progress. It's incensing. 

It's also that cycle of starting a project only to realize there is much more work involved than you imagined AND doing that project makes you realize you have at least one more project you need to add to your list. It also makes you really notice the things that you aren't going to be able to change unless you win the lottery, and I have a hard time letting go of those things. Like the fact that the yard in this place is pitched all over the place and the front sidewalk is all cracked and wonky and pools of water collect in odd places (I blame all the huge trees, obviously), which led to dark, stained sidewalks that I spent two hours attacking with a powerwasher yesterday (with G strapped to the front of me, natch) and only got about FIVE FEET cleaned because OF COURSE. It's so disgusting that even a powerwasher is like "Dudes, I give up. That's some nasty shit." I mean, with all the projects we have lined up that we already technically can't afford, there's no way we're going to smash up the sidewalk, re-grade everything, and lay new sidewalk. We're just not. So I have to make peace with it, and DO I STRIKE YOU AS A PERSON WHO CAN MAKE PEACE WITH THINGS LIKE THAT? (hint: I am not)

Anyway, I have two projects I want to finish in the yard that MIGHT even get done today, and then I will try to give you some before and after evidence with what little before shots I have. Get excited. But not like the time I told you to get excited about Genevieve's 10-month post, because obviously that never happened. 11 months is right around the corner, though!

I'm back off to the yard. Hold me.